Did you know this?
Posted: June 19, 2009 Filed under: News/information and opinion, Randomization of randomness 5 Comments »We all are aware of current situation in Iran. I am in no position to confirm if voting was rigged or not, but public uprising there seems definitely genuine. The United States of America is paying a very close attention to the situation in Iran, and has been the headline for a week now in American cable news. Iran holds key to Middle East peace process, safety of American soldiers in neighboring Iraq, nuclear proliferation issues etc; so the interest on Iran is immense.
Couple of days ago I was watching PBS news on Iran, like on most of other cable news the talks were centered around how the use of social networking (Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, etc) has kept the momentum of protest in Iran, despite the governments clamp down on the conventional media and communication systems. Iran has applied Internet filter to stop these social networking sites, but the work around using the third party application makes harder for government to filter everything.
So the host of news asked an expert guest if a country can shut down the whole Internet system. The guest replied that it would involve a big political ramification to completely shut down the Internet system, ultimately giving an impression to the world that the election was rigged. So it’s unlikely that Iran would do that now, but it’s been done twice in past elsewhere. To quote that expert guest, one was in Myanmar and the other was in Nepal 
अझै केही बिग्रेको छैन
Posted: May 4, 2009 Filed under: Creeping frustrations, News/information and opinion 6 Comments »संविधान सभाको चुनाव मुलत संविधान बनाउन जनताको प्रतिनिधि छनोटका लागि थियो, सरकार बनएर “अग्रगामी छल्याङ” मार्नको लागि थिएन । त्यसैले हे नेपालको राष्ट्रपती, अब सरकार बनाउन नागरिक समाजलाई देउ ।
अन्तरिम संविधान भनेको संक्रमनकालिन हुन्छ, त्यसैले पूर्ण संविधानको को निर्माण तिर बल पुराउन जरुरी छ । फेरी कुनै राजनैतिक पार्टिले नै सरकार बनाउने हो भने संविधान निर्माणमा भन्दा पनि राजनैतिक भर्ती मा नै बल दिन सुरु गर्छन् । सरकारको कुर्सी खै किन हो बांदरको हातको निलो नरिबल जस्तो भएको छ । बहिर जति सुकै खोके पनि सरकारमा गए पछी जुन जोगी आए पनि कान चिरेको जस्तो भएको छ ।
एक चोटि संविधान बने पछी हुने आम चुनावमा जनताले आफ्नो विवेकको सहि प्रयोग गर्नु पर्छ । सबै उमेद्बार उस्तै जोकरहरु मात्र छन भने स्वतन्त्र उमेद्बारको रुपमा कसैलाई उठाउन तर्फ लाग्नु पर्छ, जनताले नै मिहेनत नगरे सम्म यि जोकरहरु बाट आश गर्नु ब्यर्थ हो भनेर शायद सबैले अब बुझिसकेको हुनु पर्छ । कुनै राजनैतिक पार्टीको झन्डा बोक्नु पहिले नेपालको झन्डा बोक्नु जरुरी छ ।
जय नेपाल ।
Social Safety Nets
Posted: April 21, 2009 Filed under: My bandwagon, News/information and opinion, Randomization of randomness 3 Comments »My previous post was not about detest to taxation, it was more on the inept pricing of DVD rentals in that particular public library. I believe that proper functioning of a society requires certain social safety nets, for that you need taxation. But don’t get me wrong, I am strongly against ‘taxation of people to death’ by their government. Taxation definitely is required, but getting an appropriate and effective taxation scheme is more of a challenge.
Today morning, while driving to work, my car spun off the ramp and the engine shut off after hitting the curb. My car was facing straight to incoming ‘office time’ traffic, eager to get off the ramp. There was a high probability that some vehicle would definitely crash into mine on the ramp (while hurrying to get to their work). I dialed 911 and a State Trooper got their in two minutes to slow down the incoming traffic from the ramp. A County Police Car got their in five minutes, giving way to the State Trooper. The County Police stayed there till the towing company towed my car away.
If there was no taxation then there won’t be anything called Police, or any other social safety nets. I doubt anyone would have stopped their vehicle in safe (visible) place and help slow down the incoming traffic. So as long as my tax money is spent wisely, I don’t mind contributing. And if you expect similar help (god forbid if something like that happen), then it would be foolish to decry taxation.
Thank god, I and my car got away without any major incident. God is great.
Perks of living in a big city?
Posted: April 9, 2009 Filed under: News/information and opinion, Randomization of randomness 6 Comments »There are definitely some perks of living close to a big city: like proximity to bigger airports, happening places, lot more friends, lot more visitors and places for you to visit, better infrastructures, etc. But there might be some downsides, even if it’s negligible in comparison to the benefits you reap. I discovered one of them yesterday.
I am a big fan of public library, in fact I love anything that’s public: public transport, public TV, public radio, etc. When I was in Lafayette, I used to borrow a lot from the public library; books, CD’s, and mostly DVD’s. They all were free, you could keep DVD’s for a week, and after that it was $1 fine per day.
Yesterday I went to Baltimore County Public Library to borrow couple of DVD’s. The rate was $2.30 for a DVD (you can keep it for 2 days), after that there was a fine of $2.30 per day. I was surprised with the cost, especially when I pay four times the state tax that I used to pay in Louisiana. What baffled me more was who would want to get DVD’s from this library when you can get newer releases in the Redbox for $1.06 (rate of a DVD per day)? Also, when the older movies nowadays are readily available on the web.
Picture source: http://tylermuth.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/redbox.jpg
The 3R’s
Posted: March 27, 2009 Filed under: News/information and opinion 3 Comments »I always felt that unless you can link environment to the economy, no one will bother about the environment. It’s obvious; unlike chronic effects of health, environmental effects normally take time to appear, so environment is not people’s priority. However if there are economic incentives, then the story is different.
Hybrids normally cost higher than the normal cars, but if the government provides the subsidy to overcome that cost difference most will definitely choose the hybrids. Installation of solars is expensive, but if there is an economic incentive who wouldn’t want to have energy surplus at their homes. Using chemical fertilizers can have quick economic returns, but subsidy and encouragement to organic manures and crop rotation would definitely have more benefits in the longer run. Read the rest of this entry »
श्री पशुपतिनाथले कल्याण गरुन
Posted: January 7, 2009 Filed under: News/information and opinion Leave a comment »सानै देखि धेरै सुनेको लाइन हो यो, बिशेष गरी ठुला मान्छेका भाषणको अन्त्यमा सुनिन्छ । यता अमेरिकामा पनि त्यसै गरी God Bless America भन्दा रहेछन । तर मैले अमेरिकाको God भन्दा नेपालको पशुपतिनाथकै बढी महत्व देखेको छु है ।
१. बर्षको ३६५ दिनहरु मध्य कम्तिमा ३०० दिन जति त कुनै न कुनै ठाउँमा बन्द / हड्ताल हुन्छन ।
२. कल-कारखना र शैक्षिक क्षेत्र अस्तव्यस्त छन ।
३. आर्थिक गतिविधी शुन्यप्राय छ ।
४. आधारभुत आवश्यकताहरु, जस्तै पानी र बिजुली, को कुनै ठेगान छैन ।
५. न्याय कानुनको कुनै प्रत्याभुति छैन ।
यति हुंदा-हुंदै पनि चल्न सक्ने देश संसारैमा नेपाल मात्र होला, शायद पशुपतिनाथले नै अहिलेसम्म कल्याण गरेर होला । यही पशुपतिनाथलाई पनि “लोकतन्त्र” को लेबल टांस्न खोज्दा श्री पशुपतिनाथ पनि हार खाएर कतै नेपाल पनि रुवाण्डा र बुरुण्डी को गतिमा पुग्ने त हैन?
सबैलाई चेतना भया !!
This post is metaphoric; it has nothing to do with religion comparisons.
Jobs, jobs, and jobs
Posted: December 19, 2008 Filed under: News/information and opinion Leave a comment »National Public Radio (NPR) has become my main source of news during the commute. After being immersed in US election coverage, it wasn’t hard to sort the biases in the mainstream media, but NPR I thought stood firm in delivering unbiased news. It’s very easy to be carried away by a media house (of note: Fox News or MSNBC), but it’s important that you get a dose of middle ground, that’s where I found NPR to be. Besides, I enjoy its global coverage too (along with one of my other favorite: BBC).
Yesterday, there was a report on Israel and Palestine conflict that drew my attention. As most of us know Bethlehem (in Israel) is the birth place of Jesus. In the close proximity (Palestine) there are also some other places of significance to Christianity. However, the heavy influx of tourist in Bethlehem seldom translates to tourism across the boarder. Besides the terrorizing acts of some extremists, the Israel’s policy of isolating itself with the wall around the Western Gaza doesn’t help the cause either. If someway they (Israel and Palestine) can sort out to some degree of concession, the tourism infiltration in Palestine can do world of good to their economy. It’s even more beneficial to Israel; one Palestine working in tourism job is one less suicide bomber or one less stone pelted.
Coming back to Nepal, it doesn’t require a rocket scientist to figure why youths are still burning tires, does it?
